Success for Trail Blazers this season will be growth, finding identity, team says

Portland Trail Blazers Head Coach Chauncey Billups wants to win, but acknowledged that this upcoming season may require settling for some moral victories.

“You’ve gotta find what a ‘win’ is,” Billups told reporters during the team’s media day on Monday. “Sometimes that’s just development. Finally getting a guy to see the game, or see this play, or see this action, and just getting better at it.”

The Blazers are coming off a season wracked by injuries and are still searching for an identity post-Damian Lillard.

With the season tipping off in roughly three weeks, though, the team is healthy and has some interesting new pieces. The four-year head coach insisted he and his team expect to improve over last year’s 21-61 record.

“I’m always going to have a strong desire to win,” Billups said. “Everybody wants to win. Everybody has a burning desire to win.”

The Blazers start training camp Tuesday. Their season officially begins with an Oct. 23 home game against the Golden State Warriors.

Billups, General Manager Joe Cronin and several players spoke with reporters at a press conference Monday about the various storylines they see unfolding at the start of the season. Will last year’s lottery pick Scoot Henderson find his groove? How will new center Donovan Clingan fit into a suddenly robust big man rotation?

And, most notably, is Jerami Grant – arguably Portland’s best player whose prime playing years don’t quite align with its rebuilding timeline – destined for a trade? Grant himself offered little details, disclosing only that Cronin has been “transparent” about his future.

“We’re definitely on the same page and, yeah, just going forward from there,” Grant said. He then declined to elaborate.

Cronin spoke candidly, but broadly, about the team being still in the early stages of a years-long rebuild. But he urged patience for his young core, who he said are full of “untapped potential.”

“Shaedon (Sharpe), Scoot, now Donovan – until those guys take steps and start playing winning basketball, we’re not going to win at the level we need to,” Cronin said. “Part of it’s up to them. When can you really impact the game instead of just showing flashes.”

Thirteen players from last year’s roster are back. But Henderson, Grant, Sharpe, guard Anfernee Simons and center DeAndre Ayton all missed significant time last year by getting hurt, preventing the team from really gelling.

Center Robert Williams III, a defensive force whom Portland acquired from the Boston Celtics, played just six games last season before getting sidelined by knee surgery.

Every player is healthy right now, according to Cronin. Williams has minutes restrictions – limiting the time he can be on the court – but is playing full five-on-five.

“I just want our guys to be connected,” Billups said. “I want our guys to know each other. I want them to play for each other.”

The new additions are Clingan, the 7-foot-2 center who went No. 7 in the draft following a national championship at the University of Connecticut; and wing Deni Avdija, whom Portland got from a trade with the Washington Wizards.

Both players appear to have impressed teammates already.

Clingan was lauded in college for a ranginess and 7-foot-7 wingspan that made him a potent shot blocker, though hasn’t shown much in the way of an offensive bag. According to Ayton, the rookie’s physicality is an asset for the team.

“He doesn’t even know how important that is in this league,” Ayton said. “You know how to use your body and you make it easy for others.”

Likewise for Avdija. The 23-year-old has the size – at 6-foot-9 – and shooting touch to pull his defender out of the paint. Billups and other players at the podium said he has shown a great passing ability as well, and is apparently tough-nosed on offense.

“Deni is an extremely physical player on the offensive end, which is a unique skillset,” said shooting guard Matisse Thybulle, whose time in the eastern conference pitted him against Avdija more often during the regular season.

“He embodies characteristics of a tough team. And I think building around that will be really valuable.”

While those two will be unknown quantities for many Portland fans, returning players are also facing questions.

Henderson, last year’s No. 3 draft pick who fell short of all-rookie expectations, may not be the team’s starting point guard this year like he was for much of last year. He will vie for guard minutes alongside Sharpe and Simons.

When asked to reflect on his rookie year, he said he had a lot of fun his rookie year and felt blessed. The 20-year-old later said that he can only control his own decisions and that’s how he’s approaching his sophomore season.

“Over the past year I grew as a person,” Henderson said. “I feel like I’m the same dude, still trying to control what I can control, still trying my best in whatever I do.”

The Blazers will enter the season with a clogged center rotation. Besides Clingan, the team is stocked with Williams, Ayton and Duop Reath.

Avdija, Grant, Toumani Camara, Kris Murray and Toumani Camara are all poised to compete for minutes at the wing.

Fine-tuning the rotation will be Billups’ task. It’s Cronin’s burden to scrutinize contracts and weigh potential trades this season.

Ayton remains the team’s highest paid player, with two years and nearly $70 million left on his contract. Simons has two years and roughly $53 million remaining. Both are young but may not be on the team’s long-term timeline.

Grant is the team’s oldest player with a contract that might scare other teams. He has three more years and a player option that, combined, would net him $96 million into his age 34 season.

“We’ll see how things go throughout the season and the trade deadline’s quite a ways away,” Cronin said.

Like Billups, he said he won’t grade the season by wins alone. He said he wants to see players grow and the team find an identity.